


Broken

by littleknowledgesuitsthegreat



Category: The Avengers
Genre: Angst, Graphic, M/M, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Tony will only repeated one word, and speak nothing else, in reponse to having been raped multiple times while having been captured, that word being broken, this gets VERY graphic, trigger warning, very
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 06:07:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4049077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleknowledgesuitsthegreat/pseuds/littleknowledgesuitsthegreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He nodded, his throat dry and taunt.<br/>“Alright. Don’t be too…” The agent trailed off, taking back the clipboard to shove back in the slot. His hand began to rest on the doorknob,”There’s a few things you should know first before you see him.”<br/>Steve’s eyes replied for him. And they are?</p><p>“Stark… hasn’t been speaking, since we found him. The only outburst we’ve had was an accident with a few nurses, he attacked one with a needle. The only thing he’ll say is one repeated word.” </p><p>“That is?” Steve silently cleared his throat. A weight seemed to press down on his chest. </p><p>“Broken.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

**Author's Note:**

> In the next few chapters, this gets very graphic. Please comment for more and tell me what you think is going to happen in the next chapter ^.^

It had been about a week since Tony and returned from being kidnapped. Honestly, at this point, Tony had been on his sixth kidnapping, and wasn’t all that surprised at first. He took it head on immediately, snappy comments and useless attempts at conversations with his immediate captors. Occupational hazard. So, after hearing that it wasn’t done by a known organisation to SHIELD, he stopped worrying. To be fair, you shouldn’t ever walk out of a fancy, big suit party alone. 

But this one had been different. Immediately, one would think it had to do with the fact that this was the first time since Afghanistan, after New York. But no… There was more to it than just that. The kidnapper hadn’t wanted a ransom, as they always did, didn’t want him to build any weapon of mass destruction. What he had wanted, Tony wouldn’t say.

The Avengers retrieved him within a matter of five days, easily. The trick was finding location. Whoever had him was good at keeping hidden and staying that way, a good way with escaping. Very anonymous, he knew his stuff. Just not better than Tony, who’d managed to hack into Darcy’s iTunes account before his phone had been taken away. He had the fantastic idea of using a sequence of songs which he downloaded onto her account, spelling out a message to say that he was alright, not hurt, but had been taken, and to tell with ‘Courtesy To The Red, White, And Blue’.

Everything had been fine then. Until things changed. 

It had all changed within five days. 

“If we could just debrief you, this could go a lot faster.” 

The smell of the interrogation rooms were always something of sanitiser. Deep cleanser, which made you think about what had happened to need such cleaning. What kind of cleaner was it? A cheap generic brand, or the expensive kind? Did SHIELD splurge on their cleaner budget just to have the best, cleanest areas. Funny, maybe that was why they didn’t put hardly any funding into the Avengers team aside from very, very basic incomes. 

Tony stared down as he clenched and unclenched his hand repeatedly, sitting on the other side of the room. Bright white, the whole room, like a scene from those poorly informed movies on psychiatric hospitals with bad connotations. 

“Stark?” Coulson’s voice was sharper this time. He looked up silently. 

“Apparently you had some, uh, trouble with the medical hub?” 

Tony blinked. 

“They said you attacked a nurse with a needle rather viciously. Then refused to cooperate and wouldn’t say anything other than ‘broken’.” Coulson went on. Pregnant seconds past with no response aside from wide, brown eyes staring back at him. As if Tony wasn’t computing anything he was saying. 

Coulson’s expression folded and he straightened his back, trying not to show his clear disappointment, He wasn’t sure all what he’d get accomplished by the interaction. Something, he’d settle with something. The Avengers had been pissed about not being able to see Tony yet, but he simply spouted off his well conceived lies of it being standard protocol for kidnapping incidents. 

If only they knew. 

“Still not speaking, I see.” He said with a thin smile, clearly not meaningful. 

“Broken.” Tony replied, his voice uplifting in the innocence which was marked for children. 

Coulson stepped back, a hand on the door. He glanced up as he spoke. 

“Except for that, yeah. Broken.” He replied in a light voice then opened the door completely,”I’m going to leave now.” 

Tony didn’t seem to notice that he’d left, staring off into space. His dark brown eyes empty, vacant, with a fake skeletal frame of brightness. Bright and dead.  
~

“So what, you’re keeping him prisoner until further notice? Sounds something like what the kidnapper did.” Steve had his arms folded tightly, with an expression reserved for intimidation. As if it’d work on the other. 

“Not prisoner, think of it merely as.. debriefing.” Coulson replied with that faint smile always playing. No matter the situation it seemed. There was a reason he was one of the best agents Fury had. 

“Doesn’t sound like there’s much of a difference.” Clint retorted from his spot, sitting crosslegged on the table of the meeting room of the helicarrier hub. The Tower and been seemingly quiet for the past week since 1/6th of their team had been gone. 

“Seriously, Coulson, if it’s a matter of security, we’re not a risk.” Natasha said in bargaining voice. She was between Steve and Natasha, leaving with her hands on the table. The oldest agent looked back at her with his kind, yet completely immovable eyes. 

“It’s not that, Agent Romanoff. Despite popular belief, all of you are trusted fairly well.” 

“Then what is it, then?” Steve was quick to speak. 

Another silence. A split second which a quick beat of awkwardice. 

“It’s classified. He went through something we’re not sure yet.” 

“Oh my god. No offence, sir, but cut the crap. I’ve been working with you long enough to understand what that means. Just tell us.” Clint snapped. It took a lot for him to go against what Coulson said so vocally, but considering the circumstances. Everyone glanced back at him, but  
he kept his stern eyes forward. 

“Very well.” His voice was quiet. 

“You will show us Anthony, then?” Thor spoke first. 

“Not all of you. But Captain Rogers, yes.” He said and turned with a small hand gesture,”Come with me, Captain.” 

Steve slowly unfolded his arms and quickly walked up to him in his surprise. Leaving the rest of them in the stern, passive aggressive silence of each other, mainly sourcing from Clint. 

They walked down the hallway, down a dizzying pathway to Steve’s thoughts. 

“Might want to give some context as to what happened to him, sir?” Steve walked, having no more trouble keeping up with the older man’s pace. 

“It’s quite… concerning, you might want to prepare yourself for the worst. I’ll grab the medical report when we get up there.” Coulson said, keeping his head high as he looked forward. Steve could swear he heard a twinge of sympathy in his voice. The rest of the walk was kept in silence.  
They reached a series of doorways, passing an open room with a desk in the centre. As if they’d been transported into a hospital floor. Steve tried not to be taken aback by the random change of environment. Coulson paid not acknowledgement, much less mind, and stepped in front of a white doorway. Everything seemed white, a bleach white which was meant to be calming, but based upon connotations, was more unsettling than anything else. 

On the door was a plastic cubby holding a clipboard and a few papers, a pen hung up by the clipped edge, plastic wedging between pen and cap. 

Coulson pulled out the clipboard, glancing at it a moment before passing it to Steve with a grim look. 

Steve looked down at the paper, covered in pen writing. At the top, the writer had indicated this being a top priority patient. He read lower, identifying it as a basic medical form, stating symptoms and whatnot. 

“....No.”

‘Subject shows clear signs as victim of repeated rape.’

‘Severe psychological trauma is unavoidable.’

The clipboard slipped out of his hand a few inches and his grip tightened. 

 

“I’m sorry. Do you still want to see him?” Coulson looked back, sadly. He seemed to be waiting for Steve to finish his reading of the medical form. Steve looked up to him, feeling out of place and awkward. This was… impossible. Not Tony, he said he was fine, he said he was perfectly fine. 

He nodded, his throat dry and taunt.  
“Alright. Don’t be too…” The agent trailed off, taking back the clipboard to shove back in the slot. His hand began to rest on the doorknob,”There’s a few things you should know first before you see him.”  
Steve’s eyes replied for him. And they are?

“Stark… hasn’t been speaking, since we found him. The only outburst we’ve had was an accident with a few nurses, he attacked one with a needle. The only thing he’ll say is one repeated word.” 

“That is?” Steve silently cleared his throat. A weight seemed to press down on his chest. 

“Broken.” 

Tony had been sitting in the corner of the white room. It held a bed at the back corner, wires and diodes scattered in front of him, a circuit board at his feet which was only a foot long, by maybe six inches wide. He had his legs balled up against his chest with one arm wrapped around then, the other moving around certain coloured wires into specific, coloured coded places.  
The silence broke as the door entered and evidently people entered. He didn’t look up, no hesitation. 

“Stark?” Coulson’s voice rose, with a tone of a primary teacher. A few seconds passed until Tony seemed to have compute it. He looked up, staring back at him. Upon realising the other man in the room, his eyes flickered back at him, then to Coulson. 

“Broken?” 

“Why don’t you sit down at the table, like earlier?” The agent replied. Tony pulled himself up and sat down in the seat opposite to the other two. Steve watched the genius’ every movement. This wasn’t Tony…. Not in his eyes, void of the warm, worn colour tone, nor the quick, almost fluid and constant movements that he used to cover up his nervousness. He seemed to move awkwardly, like a clumsy puppy who wasn’t aware of its own size yet. Like…. all emotion had been drained, only blank eyes and a ghost of someone he knew replaced.

He wore white scrubs, shirt a bit too big, which seemed out of place. Not a finely cut suit or messy jeans and Tshirt.

“I brought Steve Rogers with me. You remember him, correct?”

“Broken.” Tony glanced back at the super soldier. “/Broken/.” 

An uneasy dance of tilting emotions and nervousness took place in Steve’s stomach and he couldn’t manage even a nervous smile. At least he was recognised, though that gave to question as to whether or not Tony had trouble recognising over people. 

“Er, he and the other members of the Avengers team are getting worried about you.” 

Tony stared back at him without much recognition aside from a blink. He didn’t seem to notice as his hand began to clench and unclench, brushed his fingertips against the surface. A nervous tick that he had always had, as long as Steve had met him. Though nothing else added up, not his expression or body language, just his hands. The difference was the red circle around his wrist with a twin on the other wrist, peeking out against the plastic medical bracelet. Like he’d been roughly bound.

“Can you recall any of the others?” Coulson said after a second,”Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Thor?” 

Tony flinched and nodded. 

“What do you remember of them?” 

“Broken.” He chirped. A thick cut laid at the top of his cheekbone, red scratches were placed along his neck in a fluid pattern against the cream coloured skin, a shade or two darker than  
Steve’s. Italian, fare.

Coulson walked up to sit down, across from him. There was a second chair next to it, which he looked back at Steve as an invitation to sit down. The super soldier moved from his reverse parade stance, leaning against the wall. 

Though when he moved a few feet forward, Tony scrambled backward. The chair tipped and he crawled backward until he hit the back corner of the room, away from Steve. He screamed a short second while staring back at him with a frightened look playing his eyes. 

“Broken! Broken! Broken!” He repeated in a distressed, high pitched voice of short succession. 

Immediately Steve stepped back, unable to take his eyes off of Tony. His expression was that of pure fear, an animalistic expression filling the empty void left behind. He only noticed that Coulson had opened the door and grabbed his arm, directing him to leave in silence. 

The two men escaped the room quickly, shutting the door behind them. 

 

“What the hell happened?” Steve blurted without thought. 

“Not sure. You must have set him off.” Coulson replied, seemingly unmoved as he looked back down the hallway,”Can we get a nurse in here, please?” 

Steve felt like he’d run a marathon, adrenaline forcing him to take stolen breath. 

“‘Must have set him off’?!” He repeated,”He looked like I had hurt him!” 

“Yes, I was there. This is why we were wary to let anyone see him.” Coulson snapped, which made Steve withdrew from his stance. As male and female adorning blue scrubs walked past them, into the room, they looked back at each other. 

“Explain. Everything you know.” 

“We will.”

“You /will/ now, Agent Coulson. To the team.” Steve said assertively. 

He stared back at him with an expression most would fold at. Not today. 

“Report back to the meeting room, it’s time to have a conference.”


End file.
